Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad resigned on Monday to enable formation of a new government. Palestinian National Authority (PNA) President Mahmoud Abbas has accepted Fayyad's resignation and tasked him to form the new government, sources in Abbas's office said.
Xinhua quoted sources as saying that the new government would focus on implementing a series of decisions aimed at promoting national unity. "The government will pave the way for holding local, parliamentary and presidential elections," said sources. The Palestinian leadership announced that they would hold national elections by September, though the Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip rejected new polls under the current circumstances.
Hamas won the parliamentary elections in 2006, but routed pro-Abbas forces and ousted his Fatah party in Gaza a year later after the two movements failed to stick to a Saudi-brokered power-sharing pact, the media report said. Hamas refused to recognize Fayyad's government which was formed in the West Bank after the PNA lost Gaza. The sources said that Abbas had asked Fayyad to expand the new government.